Advice regarding driving to France and Switzerland

[markjay]

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Queues? For what, charging? There are lots of available chargers everywhere, no queues...

But everyone says there are huge queues everywhere “because the infrastructure doesn’t exist”

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

View attachment 155739

Useful for when your EV catches fire, I guess

 

[SpikyMikey]

Useful for when your EV catches fire, I guess

markjay has driven his more than 100 miles in one go.....according to all the hoo-haa surrounding EVs, surely it should have already spontaneously combusted by now?

 

[markjay]

There are dozens of public chargers in the village, but they are all 11kW, and none are close to me. So the only option is to charge whenever I go shopping in the village centre, but one hour parking on an 11kW public charger only gives me around 10%, so it's a bit of a pain.

Again, plenty of (slow) chargers everywhere... see for example this car park:

I guess my charging strategy will be to top up around 10% whenever I drive the EV to the village.... once the snow melted. Until then I'll driving the Suzuki which is 4x4 and has winter tyres.

 

[st13phil]

Until then I'll driving the Suzuki which is 4x4 and has winter tyres.

Good to hear that I/C has come to your rescue

All joking aside, your experience of driving an EV through France to Switzerland has underscored how important charging infrastructure is. Unless and until the UK gets charging facilities more like those in France and less like those (or worse than) in Switzerland, EV take up is doomed.

 

[markjay]

Good to hear that I/C has come to your rescue

The Hyundai is on a lease and will go back next year. I didn't fancy investing in 4 wheels and 4 winter tyres for a one off trip to Switzerland (and I am aware that I could sell them on eBay when I got back to the UK...).

I drove here during warm weather (25⁰C), and I have use of a local car here with proper snow tyres. Lots of Teslas here, BTW, with winter tyres obviously.

 

[st13phil]

The Hyundai is on a lease and will go back next year. I didn't fancy investing in 4 wheels and 4 winter tyres for a one off trip to Switzerland (and I am aware that I could sell them on eBay when I got back to the UK...).

I drove here during warm weather (25⁰C), and I have use of a local car here with proper snow tyres. Lots of Teslas here, BTW, with winter tyres obviously.

It was a joke...

 

[clk320x]

Unless and until the UK gets charging facilities more like those in France and less like those (or worse than) in Switzerland, EV take up is doomed.

Which major trunk roads of the UK are short of rapid chargers in your experience?

 

[BTB 500]

Which major trunk roads of the UK are short of rapid chargers in your experience?

How many rapid chargers are there (typically) at a site?

 

[st13phil]

My EV-driving friends tell me that charging facilities on UK trunk roads are a bit hit and miss in terms of availability (either because they are occupied, or out of order) and that away from trunk roads they are few and far between.

 

[markjay]

How many rapid chargers are there (typically) at a site?

I don't know about the UK, but in France and Switzerland there were typically 4 to 8 superchargers per site (motorway services).

 

[markjay]

Also, I have a "ChargeMyHyundai" subscription, I'm sure that other marques have similar schemes, it's a subscription that gives you access to most (if not all) charging networks in the UK and Europe.

I was surprised at how easy it is to use. You stop next to the charger, open the charging flap in the car, plug-in the charger cable, waive the ChargeMyHyundai card in front of the charger's wireless pad, and it immediately starts charging. No hassle, no need to press any buttons, navigate touch screens, or use apps (there's also an app but it's optional).

I understand that later cars are fitted with an RFID chip (my early model isn't), which means that you don't even need to use the card, instead the charger recognises the car and starts charging automatically as soon as it's plugged-in.

 

[BTB 500]

My EV-driving friends tell me that charging facilities on UK trunk roads are a bit hit and miss in terms of availability (either because they are occupied, or out of order) and that away from trunk roads they are few and far between.

As mentioned in the EV Fact thread there are currently 4,667 public fast chargers (150 kW or more) in the UK. I guess there will typically be several at each site, so that's not an awful lot of fast charging locations across the whole country (given that a fair number of them will be clustered in/around urban areas).

 

[markjay]

As mentioned in the EV Fact thread there are currently 4,667 public fast chargers (150 kW or more) in the UK. I guess there will typically be several at each site, so that's not an awful lot of fast charging locations across the whole country (given that a fair number of them will be clustered in/around urban areas).

Argeed, though my logic says that the superchargers will be located mainly on motorways and other main routes? In cities, a standard 50kW public charger is more than enough for most. Drivers will be fine with a 10-15 minutes top up, given that the average speed in London is (from memory) around 10mph..... at that speed, you can drive all day long and not need to charge.

 

[clk320x]

How many rapid chargers are there (typically) at a site?

I only use Superchargers so I can only speak about those from personal experience, in the UK usually 8-12, but some sites have more.

I think we have queued 3 or 4 times in 3 years - and that’s typically been at sites around London such as South Mimms (which has just had a massive expansion awaiting DNO switch on), Rugby has also been massively increased to over 20 stalls. Both sites also have lots of Gridserve or Applegreen units (Applegreen at Welcome Break).

Drove up to Newcastle & back yesterday on the A1 - plenty of SuCs and no issues at all. Also spotted loads of Gridserves next to them.

 

[clk320x]

My EV-driving friends tell me that charging facilities on UK trunk roads are a bit hit and miss in terms of availability (either because they are occupied, or out of order) and that away from trunk roads they are few and far between.

I assume they don’t have access to the Supercharging network then.

The charging network is why high-mileage EV drivers tend to stick with Tesla.

If you don’t regularly do over 200 miles anything will be fine.

 

[clk320x]

Argeed, though my logic says that the superchargers will be located mainly on motorways and other main routes? In cities, a standard 50kW public charger is more than enough for most. Drivers will be fine with a 10-15 minutes top up, given that the average speed in London is (from memory) around 10mph..... at that speed, you can drive all day long and not need to charge.

Yep, they are spread out along the trunk roads.

But - London is pretty well equipped. This is the live availability at 2pm on Saturday… plenty of availability - and as you say, you can drive around all day in London losing barely any %…

 

[clk320x]

I don't know about the UK, but in France and Switzerland there were typically 4 to 8 superchargers per site (motorway services).

I think you’re referring to Rapid Chargers, rather than ‘Superchargers’ (as in Tesla ones) - as the Superchargers in France typically have far more stalls, 20+ is practically the norm.

Eg:

 

[st13phil]

The charging network is why high-mileage EV drivers tend to stick with Tesla.

Yes, a couple of EV-driving friends own Teslas and their experience of public charging is much better than the non-Tesla EV drivers I know.

Which sort of reinforces my point that the public charging offer in the UK is well behind what is available in, for example, France. I realise that it's all a bit chicken and egg, but unless and until the situation improves drastically, the general public aren't going to be swayed by the benefits of EV ownership. After all, if people have difficulties finding available public chargers now when EV's represent just 2.3% of all road vehicles, it doesn't take a genius to see that things will get worse as BEV's become more common.